The Mighty 200,000

If you clicked on this post thinking that the "200,000" was referring to the amount of views on this humble little blog of mine then all I will say to you is "I wish!!" No, I'm talking about one of the few things born on the internet that I can actually praise rather than rant about like I have done lately. No More Page 3 is an organisation who are trying to get rid of the topless photos which leap out at readers of British tabloid, The Sun, the second the first page is turned. This once small group just hit 200,000 members! 

Why do naked women appear in newspapers? Surely people who purchase The Sun (no matter what personal prejudices I have against them) want news, not nudity? It is hard for me to understand how degradation and objectification of women found it's way into mainstream publication in the first place, but 42 years on, isn't it old news? 

Former Green Party representative and MP, Caroline Lucas, recently caused quite a stir in Parliament by revealing her No More Page 3 t-shirt. Not only are political figures becoming aware of the campaign and it's desire to change the way the nation broadcasts and receives the news, celebrities including Russell Brand, Eliza Doolittle and adamant feminist/Times columnist Caitlin Moran are supporters, too. Moran even commented "teenage tits aren't news OR a feature". Too right. 

My mother tried to tell me that Page 3 is perfectly fine because the girls being featured are doing so out of choice, and are not being pressured into doing anything by The Sun. Whether this is true or not, this is still irrelevant to the topic of whether boobs should be in the news. And anyway, I doubt the page 3 girls think "woop-de-bloody-doo, I love being objectified by men I don't know! Let's plaster my bare boobs in one of the most popular newspapers in the country, which is displayed well in reach of young children, and suggest to them that my body (and eventually theirs) is the only part of me that anyone really cares about!!" with much delight. 

Let's make 2014 the year boobs were taken out of the news. 

Join in the discussion on Twitter with the #NoMorePage3 hashtag, or sign the petition on change.org (https://www.change.org/p/david-dinsmore-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3 here's the link if, like me, you're a lazy sod who can't be bothered to google it. You have no excuse now!!). Hopefully, I will not have to make any future posts on this issue, as it's nearing the final push it needs to come true. Fingers crossed!! 

Social Media Misdemeanours

Following my previous post almost a month ago now (sorry!!) regarding a trending topic on twitter entitled #WomenAgainstFeminism, I have decided that now is as good a time as any to address yet more social media stupidity. God, I wish I didn't have to, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

As I write this, there is a hashtag circulating around Twitter called #FeministsAreUgly. So, as you've probably guessed, some people got a bit of a roasting from Yours Truly. All I'm currently seeing on my timeline is witty comebacks being fired against this statement. Man, I'm so proud. Is it just me, or is the phrase "Feminists are ugly" completely promoting feminism? After all, it just proves feminism is needed to stop people from objectifying women and suggesting that the only thing about them relevant to men is their appearance. And guess what, even if we're ugly, we genuinely don't care. I'm sure we'd all rather be ugly but bad ass, educated promoters of equal rights than pretty and naïve/so narcissistic that we do not want anyone to be on the same societal platform as we are. 

 

Whether it's to take the piss out of the derogatory hashtag, or argue against it with a more serious tone, pretty much everyone had something to say. But it's hashtags like this that allow misogyny to be broadcast in the first place, and with social media platforms like twitter now attracting a user demographic of mostly teenagers and young adults, it can easily be passed on to people who may grow up to be fully-fledged misogynists. 

I cannot believe it has gotten to the point in which I am even having to comment on things like this, but the latest large-scale act of digital sexual harassment is revenge porn. Revenge porn is when someone (this 'someone' being presumably angry and bitter... and demented) posts indecent images of someone else (normally their ex-partner) online for the world to see. These images are usually of a sexual nature, 90% of the time are of women, and most importantly, are posted without their consent. 

Not only is this practice illegal and incriminating, it is also highly damaging to the individuals in the pictures. A high number of images are of under 18s, which means that people in possession of them can be prosecuted for owning or being involved in the distribution of child pornography. This is an extreme case of internet-based misogyny, and it needs to stop. 

Since the steady growth of the internet, new technological methods of sexism have been introduced, so much so that they have started to make themselves known 'IRL'. I have already written a post regarding 'laddism', which is a predominantly internet-based idea, and I have touched on rape culture in today's society and how it has almost been given a digital regeneration right at the time when we thought things were changing. Rape culture is the idea that sexual assault is something that can be joked about, and that it is the victim's own fault. Whether it be the clothing he/she was wearing, where they were, or who they were with at a specific time, people are excusing the rapist and pushing the blame on the victims. Thankfully, I myself have never been raped, and I honestly feel for those who have been. It makes me sick how they could possibly be blamed for another individual's vile actions. 

These are some messages I received on twitter (good old twitter) last week which truly prove my point: 

So what we've learnt from this is, the way a person decides to express themselves through clothing is subliminally saying "please rape me." Moreover, rape is a compliment, as you definitely need to be attractive to be a victim (what a shame, apparently I'm too ugly to be sexually assaulted). Additionally, rape is just another excuse for bra-burning, hairy-legged feminists to cry and complain about how men are shit. Oh and finally, who could forget the amazing revelation that rape culture doesn't even exist. It is just fiction. We made it up so we'd have something to moan about. Well no, I refuse to gloss over it, I refuse to excuse the perpetrators and I refuse to blame the victim. I refuse to receive hateful messages for not wanting people to be raped.

This is not the first post regarding World Wide Web wankers, and I'm sure it won't be the last considering the fact that new ways of being a sexist, misogynistic moron are invented everyday. So, until next time folks...